Saturday, October 18, 2008

Vegan MoFo Day 18:Earth Balance Peanut Butter

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Today has been such a good day.
First,I got a free tube of Tom's of Maine apricot toothpaste at IGA.Yeah,you see I was gonna get it at Shopper's Drug Mart when my mom was getting Patrick's prescription on Thursday,and she was gonna pay for it because she's collecting those optimum points.But I decided that $5.49 was too much,especially for spearmint(i love the apricot and silly strawberry) AND I forgot my coupons at home,and I have like a bajillion TOM coupons.So I was IGA and it was onsale for $4.39 from regular price of $5.99.And I had a $1.00 off coupon.So I go to checkout and it ring sup at $5.99.The policy says I get it for free since it wrung up incorrectly!
YESS!
And I rode my bike home from the West End with a chocolate coconut haystack in my mouth the whole time,just to see if I could do it.Sure I had to swallow a few times,and it became all macerated and liquid,but it was really nice,like riding home with a mouthful of chocolate and coconut,it was just hard because there's a lot of big hills,and I had to breathe through my nose,which actually felt nice,because I was all warm and coconutty and the air was cold and crisp.In between those events I had to work for eight and a half hours,but let's not get into that,instead,let's get into peanut butter...

This is Earth Balance Peanut Butter.It was given to me by Jess when I was in Portland.She got it sent to her for free because she has a popular vegan food blog and I guess is really influential so people send her free stuff to review.
Excuse me Earth Balance,but have you just not noticed how much time and internet i've devoted to peanut butter?And surely you can see from all the baking I do that maybe sometimes I might you a little EB here and there.But I digress.

Earth Balance peanut butter is a "no stir" kind,y'know it's still "natural" but you don't have to stir it like Jif,Kraft,Peter Pan,etc.Because stirring is just SOOO annyoing,amirite?I mean it just kills my wrist.I can almost feel the ankylosing spondilitis creeping up from my lower back/right hip into my wrist every time i'm forced to stir a jar of peanut butter.It's called a fridge.Also,you keep the jar upside down for like an hour,open,you barely have to stir at this point,then refridgerate.But onto the peanut butter again...
So it has added palm oil and is sweetened with agave nectar.And it had flaxseeds in it for added fibre and omega 3's.You don't notice them either,which is nice.Though,you don't actually taste the agave,so this isn't like "honey roasted peanut butter" tasting which is sad since it could be,but the agave just makes it sweeter.

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This is really yummy peanut butter.But it's not my favourite.The flavour is strong and sweet,but also very savoury.Like,reminds me of barbeque sauce.Y'know what?I think that's called smoky.Okay,the three s's-strong,sweet and smoky.But I tasted it next to some maranatha,and it's not as good.Maranatha has such a deep,complex,super-roasted,slightly salted flavour,it's hard to compare.
So taste-good.
Texture,not bad.But it's a bit lacking.
You see,my problem with these natural no stir peanut butters is that yes,you don't have to stir them,but they still have this film of oil floating ontop.EBPB is guilty of this.It's not the end of the world,but still!I bought the maranatha no stir once and it was the same deal.Though that was 2 years ago and they have new packaging,so maybe it's changed?
For example,Jif peanut butter is just smooth,no oily-ness.Thank's hydrogenation!
But you'd think the palm oil would help with that?So you may end up stirring the top a little.
Though,i'm sure it possible to make it identically-textured to no stir peanut butters of the SAD variety.I mean,Peanut Butter and Co,their chocolate/cinnamon riasin flavours are awesome in texture!Just like the hydrogenated stuff.But who knows.

All in all,Earth Balance Peanut Butter is good because I can call in EBPB.
EeBeePeeBee.
Just kidding.
It has a good flavour,falls to the same faults as other natural no stir peanut butters,and is probably a nice healthy choice because of the flax seeds.

Now send me free stuffs,please!

Oh and I enjoyed this most with fresh fruit and vegetables,just dipping and spreading.Mmm.

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5 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Glad you had a good day!!!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

yay, veggies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I prefer peanut butter that you have to stir. As soon as I open a fresh jar, I dump out all the oil that sits on top and wind up with a less fatty peanut butter.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Peanut butter is so so good alone, why do they have to sweeten it?!

Anonymous said...

Target brand food has natural not stir peanut butter, but as much as I don't want to have to stir my peanut butter, I think the stir kinds just taste better. On another note, I ran out of peanut butter this week and I've been extremely sad.